Airport

Long Beach Airport (LGB) this week will open a new parking structure, bringing all airport parking on-site and within walking distance of the main terminal building. But it will also shut down its cheapest lot. The new Lot B parking garage, under construction for more than a year near the terminal, holds about 2,000 cars. Airport spokeswoman Kim McMahon said the lot will open at 12:01 a.m. Friday. On the same day, remote parking Lot D at Lakewood Boulevard and Conant Street will be closed, although of course cars already parked there can remain until they exit, McMahon said.

It was a tough week for the Transportation Security Administration, but on at least one issue the federal agency may have scored a small victory. The TSA was on the defensive during congressional hearings last week over charges that it has wasted money by storing hundreds of pieces of screening equipment, including full-body scanners, in warehouses in Texas. The TSA's top financial officer, David Nicholson, defended the agency, saying it has cut its warehouse costs from $7.6 million in 2009 to $3.5 million in 2011.

Often film sequels are slam dunks at the box office, a seamless continuation from where a previous hit left off. But as the new installment of the 15-year-old franchise "Men in Black" proves, getting to the big screen isn't always a cakewalk. One of the most troubled productions in recent Hollywood memory, Sony Pictures' latest movie in the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones sci-fi-comedy franchise encountered multiple script rewrites, a discontented star and a three-month production shutdown as writers and studio executives scrambled to fix a project that nearly fell apart . By the time it was over, the studio had run up a tab of nearly $250 million - making "Men in Black 3" one of the most expensive releases of the summer.

Two Southwest Airlines flights with ties to Orange County and Phoenix were stopped Tuesday night after threats were made to the planes. The first incident began about 7:30 p.m. after Flight 1184 arrived at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix from John Wayne Airport, an FBI spokesman told The Times. The plane was taken to an isolated area of the airport after authorities received an unspecified threat, said Special Agent Manuel Johnson of the FBI's Phoenix division.

Carol McCabe's Nov. 29 article, "Singapore's Changi Consistently Wins the Votes as World's Best," on the Singapore airport, was good but with one misleading point. I couldn't believe it either: an airport with orchids. So I went up and touched them--orchids, all right, but artificial. They may have some real ones in Terminal 2, but those I saw in January, 1992, were fake. DANIEL JACOBS Santa Barbara

Just in time for the summer travel crush -- maybe you missed this, I sure did: Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) has moved its cellphone waiting lot to a location closer and more convenient to the airport, just a quarter mile from the 96th Street Bridge entrance. The 24/7 cellphone lot (and really, is there anyone who hasn't used this yet?) provides a free place to park for up to two hours and await a call or text from your passenger when it's time to pick them up. Newbies, take note: You cannot leave your car unattended when you use this lot. The new waiting area, at West 96th Street and Vicksburg Avenue, adjacent to Parking Lot C, opened at the end of April.

Bicycle built for four? Or should that be of four? This quirky YouTube video has gotten about a million eyeballs and has been bouncing around the Twitter-sphere. It comes with this straight-faced explanation: "Cruising with a bicycle in Prague airport before boarding a flight back home to Estonia. " (Be patient when you watch the video; it takes a while before the "bike" appears.) Which got me wondering about the prospect of using bicycles to scoot from gate to gate in airports.

Sometimes inspiration comes in the unlikeliest places. While vacationing in Puerto Vallarta in fall 2008, USC professor Deborah Harkness, a historian of science, was consumed with the upcoming bicentenary of Charles Darwin's birth, but the rest of the world, including the airport in the Mexican resort city, was gripped by a madness spread by vampires: The last of Stephenie Meyer's four "Twilight" novels had just been published. "To walk through the airport was to be hit with vampires, witches, ghosts and demons at every angle in the bookstores," says Harkness, a good-humored and enthusiastic woman of 46, over a cappuccino in Pasadena.

I was disappointed that a Mission Viejo clergyman, the Rev. John Steward, would abuse his position by making the questionable statement that building an airport or a jail without residents' approval is immoral (Sept. 1). Just who does he believe to be immoral for the decision to make the El Toro base a commercial airport? Is it the citizens of Orange County who voted for it in two elections, or the four supervisors who voted to carry out the will of the people? Steward apparently does not understand that when one moves to a highly populated metropolitan area, sacrifices are required.

Your editorial (July 29), "Airport '86," complained about the delays in processing passengers from overseas at the airport and implied that the staff should be increased. I gather the writer felt the general taxpayer should bear this expense. Why should he? The point is well taken, but why not recommend an increase in user fees to pay for the extra staff? It's a classic case of the beneficiary paying for the benefit that he enjoys rather than John Q. Public. ALLAN MacDOUGALL JR. Los Angeles

The Transportation Security Administration reached what seems like a lofty milestone last week when it announced it had screened 1 million passengers through a new accelerated security program at airports across the country. But the TSA acknowledges that the new security program, dubbed PreCheck, has served only a small fraction of the nation's air travelers. The TSA screens an estimated 1.8 million passengers a day at 450 commercial airports. That means that in the same time that the PreCheck program screened 1 million passengers since it launched in October, the TSA has processed nearly 335 million passengers.

Roberts Hawaii, the state's largest tour and transportation company, has added Roberts Hawaii Express Shuttle service from Kona International Airport on the Big Island to and from select hotels and resorts along the Kailua-Kona, Keauhou and Kohala coastline.  A Roberts rep will greet guests and help with luggage. Roberts Hawaii Express Shuttle guarantees no more than five stops during any trip. The reservation-based shuttle service is available 24 hours a day.  Prices on Kona vary according to distance and the number of passengers in a party.

If you're getting ready to take your kids on college visits or you're planning summer vacations with your  preteen, here's something you need to know about airport security checkpoints: Age matters. Children younger than 18 don't need to show ID to pass through Transportation Security Administration checkpoints ; they just need to show a valid boarding pass. (Airlines, however, have their own set of rules about children and IDs, so check beforehand. And passports are always required on international flights.)

American Airlines will cut 1,200 airport baggage and cargo jobs and close an Arizona reservations center under a bankruptcy restructuring plan to trim annual labor spending by $1.25 billion. All the carrier's jobs at airports in Ontario, six other U.S. cities and two cities in Canada will be outsourced. AMR Corp.'s American detailed changes for nonunion workers 11 weeks after telling other workers it would do away with 13,000 of their jobs, freeze pensions and make work-rule and benefit changes.

Businessman John E. Brennan said he is so sick of being harassed by the TSA when he travels that he stripped down to his birthday suit at Portland International Airport on Tuesday night in protest. And he wants you to do the same. Reactions varied to Brennan's decision to remove all his clothes to prove that he was not carrying an explosive device -- or anything dangerous, for that matter -- beneath his clothing. Parents reportedly shielded their children's eyes and looked away themselves.

A business dispute between two aviation companies at Van Nuys Airport is threatening emergency helicopter flights for injured and severely ill children from around Southern California to Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The disagreement could result in flight delays or even cancellations, according to executives at Helinet Aviation, which owns and operates 15 helicopters at the airport. Flights carrying donated organs for transplantation could also be affected, Helinet executives said.

Rain raises rafting hopes For all the trouble it has brought to this state in recent weeks, this storm season also has California river-runners feeling pretty good. The abundant rainfall has leading outfitters hoping for a stellar spring and perhaps a longer summer of rafting. George Wendt, founder and president of the rafting company OARS, expects great things for the Tuolumne River, and Bill McGinnis, founder and president of Whitewater Voyages, has similarly high hopes for other rivers, including the Kern, the nearest major river-rafting destination for Southern Californians.

Air Canada has a message for its customers: Check in online and avoid checking bags. That's the word after the airline's call center agents, airport check-in workers and gate staff went on strike Tuesday after negotiations on a new contract at the Canadian airline fell apart. In an online statement, Air Canada says it plans to operate a full schedule even though thousands of workers represented by the Canadian Auto Workers union walked off the job. Air Canada says it has deployed 1,700 managers to help handle check-in and reservations in light of the strike.

Some days, the terminals at L.A./Ontario International Airport can be as quiet as a ghost town. The number of passengers using the airport - about 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles - dropped to about 4.4 million in 2011 from 6.8 million passengers in 2007, according to federal statistics. In January, passenger traffic again dropped 7.4%, compared with the same month in 2011. Passenger numbers also dropped, although less dramatically, at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank and John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana. In contrast, Long Beach Airport, about 20 miles south of L.A., continued to boom, serving more than 3 million passengers last year, a 7% increase over 2007, with growth continuing in 2012.